After democracy comes time for kerfuffles

By Aussiegirl

Well, now that the Orange Revolution is safely behind us, we can all indulge in a bit of Eurononsense -- a Eurokerfuffle over the Eurovision Song Contest.

Yushchenko has guaranteed protesting youths that there will be a revote (becoming quite the thing in Ukraine now) to ensure that the selection of "Razom nas Bahato" is widely accepted as fair and free of corruption.

Some questions had been raised about the fairness of voting, most of which seemed to have stemmed from a misunderstanding of foreign journalists (see, they are making trouble in Ukraine also) about some statements made by an EBU sponsor, who expressed his personal opinion that the runner-up had previously been guaranteed a win.

Whatever -- have the darn revote and get on with it. Those Eurocrats are making trouble already. Thank goodness that Ukraine now has the luxury of indulging in such little bits of nonsense and that everything is being done out in the open. That's what democracy's all about. May the best song win.

Read from the official Eurovision site:

A meeting took place in Kiev today to protest about the result of the recent Eurovision national final.

Several youth groups gathered to demand what they called 'A fair Eurovision'. Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko addressed the crowd and said that he would ask his vice president, Mykola Tomenko, to arrange a revote for the national final. It is hoped this will put an end to any suggestions of corruption.

Tomenko today issued a statement dismissing rumours that Greenjolly won the contest unfairly. The blame was put onto foreign journalists, who misinterpreted a personal opinion offered by EBU contest supervisor Svante Stockselius. Admitting that runner up Ani Lorak had been almost guaranteed the Eurovision ticket by the previous management of broadcaster NTU, he said, "I feel sorry for her as she is a good singer, but now a number of political groups are trying to use her to back up their own agendas."

He also took the chance to deny rumoured back up plans to move the contest out of Ukraine. Any doubts, he said, were ironed out during a meeting between the president and the EBU.